tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84554688438335250662026-01-18T21:02:26.244-05:00Ponderings about teaching, learning, instructional design, edtech, and academia 🧐. I've got no answers, just lot's of questions😎Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.comBlogger997125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78322042219116880202026-01-10T14:00:00.001-05:002026-01-10T14:00:00.110-05:00

Last fall, I got to design and teach a course that I've been wanting to teach for a very long time: Language Learning and Technology (or, in other words, Computer-Assisted Language Learning - if you are in the language education field). It was a lot of fun to design, and a good experience to teach. I really enjoy design work (even though I don't get to do it often), and it's been ages since I

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-43529289067204063522026-01-03T14:30:00.001-05:002026-01-03T14:30:00.111-05:00

It's the winter break, and now that I have some actual downtime, I decided to do some Microsoft training. I think the last time I had the mental space to do any of this on the Microsoft Education was sometime in 2021 (if the last badge earned is any indication). Anyway, I went through the course offerings to see what's on tap at Microsoft, and I came upon a whole load of AI-related things. Cool.

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-3925515205268340472025-12-30T09:33:00.001-05:002025-12-30T09:33:00.109-05:00

Academic AI-Slop (ChatGPT Produced)Happy end of the semester, and almost the end of the calendar year!Alright, I'll own up to it. The title of this post probably doesn't hit the mark ;-)One more calendar year is in the can, and for me, it was a year of (potential) endings, a year of (potentially) new beginnings, and a year where things changed much more so than I expected in my teaching practice.

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-19363150196504788662025-12-26T10:00:00.001-05:002025-12-26T10:00:00.118-05:00

A great number of years ago, I was part of an edtech team tasked with evaluating learning management systems to move to after WebCT was essentially EoL'd by Blackboard.  Long story short, despite our recommendations, management went with Blackboard, which I guess now is classed "Classic," and it too has been EoL'd.  I wasn't a big fan of Classic, but it worked fine for what we needed it

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-7629808244699428272025-10-15T14:59:00.009-04:002025-10-15T14:59:00.120-04:00

This semester, I am helping co-facilitate a course somewhere new. More details of that in the future (maybe), but for the time being, I wanted to reflect a bit on technology use.  Since this is a new institution for me, I have to click on the technology acceptance pop-ups, see policy dialog boxes that I no longer see at my institution, and so on.  One of the assignments I am grading

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-13293434911068688432025-09-29T18:30:00.003-04:002025-09-29T18:30:00.120-04:00

 A few weeks ago, I saw this posted on a friend's social media feed, and the response was also repeating the "oh wow! I would have never thought of doing this! This is so nifty!Well... my first thought, knowing how ChatGPT works, is that this is a complete bunch of bullshit, and I immediately jettisoned this idiocy from my brain.  Over the last few days, I've been thinking that I really

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78827614376408916782025-07-12T09:37:00.001-04:002025-07-12T09:37:00.276-04:00

Well, it's been a hot minute since I last jotted down some thoughts. Don't worry. blog, it's not you, it's me 😂. I also have a daily meditation/reflection journal that I used to jot things down in, even though sometimes it was "Doogie Houser style," that only gets an entry twice or thirce a week.  Gotta take a step back and do some more reflecting.  On the plus side, the weather is

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-90377476908557462562025-05-06T20:00:00.005-04:002025-05-06T20:00:00.117-04:00

ChatGPT Patch of the Wise OwlRecently, I've been playing around with image generation in ChatGPT, not so much to create output that I plan on using seriously for something (although some output do end up on this blog as post images), but more to see how easy (or hard) it is to get something from my mind's eye into some kind of machine output.  I am also curious to see how the LLM interprets

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-41858429721692354892025-04-18T21:03:00.001-04:002025-04-18T21:03:00.112-04:00

Happy Friday, to all!This past week  - well, even a few weeks before that, if we're really counting - I've been contemplating my academic work.  Part of it is because I am working on one collaboration with some really awesome folks, and reading proofs for another collab from last summer (that should be published later this year).  However, it's worth noting that all of these

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84119189495078744692025-03-08T13:59:00.003-05:002025-03-08T13:59:43.227-05:00

 A bit of a kerfulle happened a few weeks ago, and it's just indicative of how the rest of life is  going what I've had this post in draft form for almost a month while I've plugged away at it...Annnyyywhoooo🙄The kerfuffle was kicked off by Wiley's Open Educational Language Models initial post describes OELM as bring together a collection of openly licensed components that

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-92074939459770423042025-02-22T10:12:00.001-05:002025-02-22T10:12:00.220-05:00

I came across Sarah's post on blogging questions (which I think was something started on the Reclaim Discord, so I thought I'd jump in. I was a bonus opportunity to post this Super Simple Badge, which I also created a while back, but didn't have a place to put it that made sense ;-) I guess this is a "tag you're it" sort of thing that I am just butting into.Why did you start blogging in the first

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-56459916415955532332025-01-30T08:35:00.001-05:002025-01-30T08:35:00.222-05:00

 Alright...alright... bad pun 😅But to be fair, CALL (computer-assisted language learning) does lend itself to some bad puns... And that's before I even get into other acronyms like TELL and MALL😹. I promise to spare students the dad jokes in the fall😅Anyway, last week I decided to answer my pondering as to what my course redesign should cover, and I settled on designing an

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-15180949122786577792025-01-08T22:43:00.001-05:002025-01-08T22:43:27.705-05:00

New Year, New Projects!I am taking this spring term off from teaching, partly to re-energize my batteries which have been rather low on account that I've been going full speed (🚌) since 2018; the pandemic didn't help because teaching increased around that time (not that I am complaining, the cosmos provided something I needed at the time).  Another reason for the break is partly to work on

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-9319428884901839982024-11-16T10:30:00.019-05:002024-11-16T10:30:00.114-05:00

With the US elections now settled, and a second Trump term being a reality, I guess many (most?) of the remaining hold outs on Twitter are finally migrating.  I decided to keep my personal account, for now, and just promote pro-union, pro-education, pro-left, and anti-war messages, while posting my regular content on Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.  I am also in the process of shutting

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-18011634859107605862024-11-11T14:08:00.001-05:002024-11-11T14:08:00.116-05:00

All right!  With all that pondering and throat-clearing done (see my previous series of posts), I was wondering what piques my interest in this LLM-hyped world from a practical side. I've been somewhat active in critiquing this whole thing over the past two years, but beyond creating AI images for the blog (or to amuse myself), or using ChatGPT to make silly little genre-busting poems (again

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-86057776818334615782024-10-11T18:30:00.012-04:002025-01-08T22:43:53.785-05:00

Part VI of my ponderings on all the things and wayfinding in academia. This is the last part of this series - at least for now. I don't know. I think it's time to move from retrospection to some kind of next phase 🤓Anyway, I saved the most controversial topic for last hahaha 😂OK, so before I get the rotten tomatoes🍅🪰, hear me out!😅 I am a big proponent of lifelong learning. In fact, I joke,

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78183887983440281452024-09-28T14:31:00.001-04:002024-09-28T14:31:00.118-04:00

Miseristhenes the SocialmediaiteThis is part V of my all the things(!!!) blog series where I attempt to make sense of all the things I've gotten myself into these past 5-10 years, and I figure out how to Marie Kondo my professional hobbies.  In this post, I turn my attention to social media! The topic that connects us, and divides us, and has gotten the "it's

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-21615743341175244162024-09-15T16:53:00.050-04:002024-09-15T16:53:00.118-04:00

This is part IV of my all the things(!!!) blog series where I attempt to make sense of all the things I've gotten myself into these past 5-10 years, and I figure out how to Marie Kondo my professional hobbies.  Yes...yes... I know that Kondo is no longer Kondoing and has given up the practice, but I am aiming for the gives you joy part.This particular post tackles

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-67203679041827454232024-09-10T22:13:00.002-04:002024-09-10T22:13:00.229-04:00

Part III of my 2024 all the thiiiiiings (read that with an echo😁) ponderings, and attempt to wayfind my way out around the academy...This part deals with researching, writing, and peer review. Some things I've already decided that I am not doing anymore.  Some things I've decided I may be doing a bit of.  And, other things are in limbo...So let me start with a bold proclamation: I am

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-75503982909641995432024-09-07T13:11:00.001-04:002024-09-07T13:11:00.252-04:00

Part II of my 2024 academic wayfinding ponderings! 🎓🤔If you remember my last post of 2023, you probably remember that perhaps the thing that's been taking up a lot of mental bandwidth has been the CIEE journal (Current Issues in Emerging eLearning).  This is a journal that I co-founded with my friend and colleague Alan Girelli back in the day (in 2012-2013, if I remember correctly).At the

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-42979432907131787912024-09-03T14:08:00.001-04:002024-09-03T14:08:00.291-04:00

I guess that's me, in the style of Albert UderzoOK...so it's been a while since I last blogged! (checks his notes... December 31, 2023!!! Great Scott!😬🤯) You'd think that I had given up the blogging practice, right? 😅.  Well, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought so! Contrary to appearances, I'm still around!  It's been a busy Spring semester...and a busy Summer...and now it's

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-36154803492272845832023-12-31T14:37:00.002-05:002023-12-31T14:37:00.128-05:00

[warning - a bit of long post] Well, here we are! The end of 2023! It seems like only yesterday that we were starting to hear some whispers about this thing called "ChatGPT," but it was in fact about a year ago, and as you know we moved pretty quickly through that hype cycle.  Don't worry, this entire YIR (year in review) won't be about ChatGPT 😂.  As I was pondering other

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-86411374254514741862023-09-25T18:30:00.001-04:002023-09-25T18:30:00.148-04:00

Gazing at LearningThe other day I was doing some reflecting on my own "return" to being a learner after my doctoral journey ended. Last semester I took a course on negotiation, which I saw relevant to both work and also for my role as a member of our union's contract bargaining team this round.  This course was a graduate-level course, and is typically taken either in the first or second

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84297586888671383392023-08-22T17:30:00.001-04:002023-08-22T17:30:00.138-04:00

Yesterday evening I came across a post by Tony Bates where he shared some findings from some recent reports on faculty (and student) preferences for learning in a post-pandemic world. I haven't read the reports yet, but I had some initial thoughts based on Tony's high-level overview of those three reports.  Two big things jumped out at me. The first is that students and faculty aren't

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-13661399043292447552023-06-26T16:03:00.004-04:002023-06-26T16:03:57.453-04:00

Bing Image Creator: A SyllabusWow...it's been almost two months since I started this post! It's hard to believe that it took this long to return to this thought experiment.  Just to remind the diligent reader of this blog, this came out of not one, not two, but multiple places on the web (including professional development conferences!) whereby instructional designers (and other

Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0